TX school bans trans boy from playing "Oklahoma!" male lead, recasts with cisgender male student

jeffw@lemmy.worldmod to News@lemmy.world – 700 points –
TX school bans trans boy from playing "Oklahoma!" male lead, recasts with cisgender male student
salon.com
186

You are viewing a single comment

What’s most interesting to me is how Oklahoma! is an utterly poisonous production from the get-go. Every character is a self-absorbed jerk. Judd Fry asks a girl to a dance who only agrees as a ruse to punish the protagonist, who then literally tries to convince the dude to kill himself. The entire show is fucked up.

Any director who isn’t doing something subversive with the content has their head up their own ass. But hey, it’s Texas. 🙃

Eh. Just sounds like normal low-brow shit to me.

Low brow writers feel compelled to make things as clear and obvious as possible for their dim-witted audiences.

It's simple. It's straightforward. Everyone can understand what is going on without much thought.

I don't really think it's bad for that, just is what it is.

I think you mean it's old.

Before audiences had all the tropes figured out simple stories were amazing. All the contrivances we add today we only add to make bad movies seem more interesting or complicated.

It's why perfectly executed, simple stories are still compelling. But Oklahoma! certainly isn't one of them.

Edit: oh, and some people love the music

I do like the music, but the great thing about a lot of musicals is you can just listen to the music without needing to watch the show.

Nah, just because something is old doesn't mean it's simple.

Any director who isn’t doing something subversive with the content has their head up their own ass.

Its a school musical dude, calm down. If you want a subversive and thoughtful performance then don't go to a school production.

Oklahoma isn't "poisonous" its just weird. But, its fun for high school students to perform, and that's all it has to be. The purpose of a musical theater program in a school isn't to impress you with complex well written narratives, its to provide the students with an experience they wouldn't get otherwise.